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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap.::::'..:. Copyright No. 

Shelf._(2 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/summervacationinOOgill 






THE MASCOT. 



A SUMMER VACATION 



IN 



ICELAND. NORWAY, SWEDEN 
AND RUSSIA 



BY 

CHARLES J. GILLIS 

AUTHOR OF "AROUND THE WORLD IN SEVEN MONTHS, 
"ALASKA AND YELLOWSTONE PARK," ETC. 



J* 



printed for prtoate Distribution 



%Ol* 



Copyright, i8g8, by 
CHARLES J. GILLIS 







VDitf} tfye Compliments of 
THE AUTHOR 




THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 



THE steamship " Ohio," of the American Line, left her 
dock at Fulton Street, New York, June 26, 1897, hav- 
ing on board ninety excursionists bound for Iceland, 
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Russia. I was glad 
to join the party, for, with one exception, having already been 
in every State and Territory of the United States of America, 
including Alaska; in the most important countries of Asia — 
Japan, China, Ceylon, and India; in Egypt; and several times 
in the countries of Europe, with the exception of the ones 



named above, I desired to complete my knowledge of the globe 
by taking this trip, particularly as the ship was to go to some 
places difficult of access and seldom visited by tourists. The 
steamer proved on examination to be first-class, with all the 
modern conveniences, and I found myself in possession of a 
large and very comfortable inside stateroom. She made about 
300 miles a day, and was so steady that I often thought she 
had stopped. The passengers were nearly all Americans — ladies 
and gentlemen from many parts of the country — notable repre- 
sentatives from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Texas, 
and Mississippi. 

In writing an account of this trip I shall endeavor to bear in 
mind Ruskin's axiom, quoted in one of my previous books of 
travel, " that the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this 
world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way." 

The countries which we are going to are very old, some of 
them having histories extending back for more than a thousand 
years, and the libraries of the world are filled with books describ- 
ing minutely everything about them. I shall, therefore, try to 
write what I saw, and not of that which others have seen and 
written about. 

We had a very comfortable passage, and arrived at Southamp- 
ton July 6th. One day before we landed, one of the young 
ladies of the party had the misfortune to lose her money belt, 
containing some sixty dollars in cash and her letter of credit. 
It had been left in one of the bathrooms, and the theory was 
that it was found and carried off by a servant who deserted at 
Southampton. 

Early on the voyage I made the acquaintance of Mr. 
Edward W. Dean, of Rutherford, New Jersey, a retired Boston 
merchant, and as the ship was detained at Southampton, we 
went ashore to spend the day and see the sights. 

The ship was berthed at the Empress Dock, one of the best 

6 



in the world, and the cars of the Southwestern Railway run on 
to it, so that passengers and freight can be transferred directly 
from them to the ships. 

We wandered about the streets and parks, and found every- 
thing clean and orderly. The parks were fine, and adorned 
with many bronze statues of famous Englishmen, and the 
grass, trees, and flowers were kept in the best condition. It is 
a large city, with miles of stores filled with beautiful goods. I 
bought a soft black hat for four-and-six-pence, and found it a 
great comfort during the cruise. We had an excellent dinner at 
a restaurant, and later returned to the ship, and at five o'clock 
we continued the voyage, passing very near the Isle of Wight 
and obtaining fine views of the splendid residences and grounds 
for which that beautiful island is famous. The ship passed on 
through the Strait of Dover and up the coast of England and 
Scotland to the 



ORKNEY ISLANDS, 

where she dropped her anchor in the port of Stromness. The 
town is a small one, and most of the buildings are apparently 
one or two hundred years old. Some of the passengers who 
went ashore stated that the arrival of the ship caused consider- 
able excitement among the people, it being far larger than any 
American vessel which had ever been seen before. 

The town-crier was called to his work, and went about the 
streets, ringing his bell and shouting: 

" Hear ye ! Hear ye ! 
The American steamer " Ohio " has come, 
With one hundred passengers on board ; 
All the shopkeepers put your goods front and tidy, 
For you have a chance to make a wee bit of money." 
7 



A young native woman supplemented this by singing: 

" But oh ! ye are grand ! 
It will be more than a wee bit ; 
Yee left a deal of money ; 
The likes of it was never seen in all Stromuess." 

The seventy-three islands in this group belong to Scotland, 
and the people have the distinguishing characteristics of that 
race, being religious, sober, intelligent, and law-loving. We 
were told that there was little use for courts and prisons, and 
that a murder had not been committed on any of the islands for 
two hundred years. 

We spent an hour or two wandering about the narrow streets 
and looking into the stores. Some of the ladies bought quite 
freely of the curios of the place and the well-known Shetland 
shawls which are woven here. 

Leaving this port, the ship made a run of 1 10 miles to the 



SHETLAND ISLANDS, 

and landed at Lerwick, Sunday morning, finding all the stores 
closed, as the town was within Scotch jurisdiction. There are 
a half dozen churches here, and many of the passengers 
attended services. 

Lerwick is a fine town, much like Stromness, but larger, and 
presenting a handsome appearance. Seen from the deck of the 
ship were the town hall, custom house, churches, and many fine 
dwellings. 

A run of 249 miles brought us to the 



FAROE ISLANDS. 

There are twenty-two of them, belonging to Denmark. We 
landed at Thorshavn, the principal town, and spent about two 
hours on shore, looking at the stores and ancient streets and 
houses. The chief business appears to be fishing, and the 
curing and exportation of the fish, — rather a bad-smelling occu- 
pation, as we discovered here and elsewhere. 

A further run of 445 miles brought us to 



ICELAND, 

the capital of which is Reykjavik, reported to have a population 
of 4,000. We went ashore here, and spent part of the day look- 
ing about. There are no wheeled vehicles to be seen, but any 
one who wishes can mount a shaggy little horse and go into the 
country. Some of the party went two miles out of town to 
see some small hot springs, the water of which was used by the 
washerwomen of the town ; but as I had seen many hot springs 
in Japan and in the Yellowstone Park, I did not care to endure 
the manifest discomfort of riding one of the ugly little beasts 
which were offered to me. A governor, sent from Denmark, 
resides here, and the}' have a parliament and senate house, a 
cathedral, and a hospital, — all of which are very creditable to 
the country. 

We saw a handsome monument, erected to the memory 
of the great sculptor Thorwaldsen, who was born here, and 
whose great works can be seen in most of the museums in 
Europe. 

The houses are small, the streets dirt}-, and the country 

9 



rough, stony, and very uninviting. Some grass and vegetables 
were trying to grow, but they had a hard time of it. There was 
not much snow or ice to be seen, but I consider it the most for- 
lorn country for human beings to live in which I ever saw. The 
wonder is that the people do not all join some thousands of 
their fellow countrymen who have a settlement near Winnipeg, 
Manitoba, where the climate is cold enough in the winter, but 
fine in summer, and where they can raise wheat and other grains 
to great advantage. Two years ago I saw several hundreds of 
people from this settlement who were on an excursion to Win- 
nipeg. They were well clothed, healthy, and nice looking, and 
I was told that they are very successful farmers. 

We stopped two days in Iceland and then started for the 
North Cape, 1,160 miles off, in a northeasterly direction. Cap- 
tain Boggs changed the itinerary somewhat, and went entirely 
around the island. We were only 900 miles from the North 
Pole, and might have reached it in three days; but as it was 
reported that we should encounter much ice, we did not move 
in that direction. The weather continued fine, and the voyage 
across the Arctic Ocean was very comfort- 
able. I expected to see icebergs and 
large masses of floating ice 
in these waters, but 
I did not. One of 
the ladies, how- 
ever, was more for- 
tunate than I, and 
wrote : "In the 
afternoon of July 
1 6th I saw a pic- 
turesque product 
of nature's machin- 
ery — a large ice- 




BOAT LANDINC 



AT THE NORTH CAPE. 
IO 



floe. The sun had separated the iceberg into floating groups of 
frozen statuary, endless in variety, attractive in form, graceful and 
dignified in motion; all was aqua-marine, until one short gleam 
of the sun turned them, for an instant, into jewel caskets, daz- 
zling our eyes with rainbow radiance. This dazzling being a foe 
to our safety, our good captain changed our course and gave the 
ice the right of way." 

We were in latitude 6/° 56' north, and longitude 8° 22' west, 
and this is a good place in which to see the midnight sun. Here- 
tofore the evenings had been cloudy, and we could not see the 
sun set; but on the sixteenth of July the weather promised to 
be clear, and every one was on deck to enjoy the extraordinary 
sight, which many thousand people go hundreds of miles every 
summer to see. In this locality the sun does not go below 
the horizon at this season, but at twelve o'clock begins to rise 
again. At half-past eleven all hands were eagerly watching the 
great red luminary — which looked three times as large as usual 
— until, at a quarter of twelve, it commenced to 
enter a low bank of clouds resting 
on the water, and then we 
were treated to a mag- 
nificent sight. To the 
north and the south 
the reflection of 
the sun was cast 
upon the clouds, 
forming what ap- 
peared to be a vast 
sea of molten gold. 
In a short time all 
this passed ; the 

sun went down be- — 

hind the clouds, to 




NORTH CAPE FROM THE FOOT-PATH. 
II 



rise again in ten minutes; but the clouds prevented us from 
seeing it a second time that night. 

At eleven o'clock on the night of July 20th we arrived at 



THE NORTH CAPE. 

This is described in the guide-books as a dark mass of slate and 
rock which rises abruptly out of the sea, to a height of 968 
feet, and is the most northerly point in Europe. Nearly all the 
passengers went ashore in the ship's steam launch, and at once 
commenced the difficult ascent. I was fortunate enough to 
have for an escort two young ladies from Mauch Chunk, Pa., 
and we made a brave rush for a third of the way up without stop- 
ping. The pathway, running near a small stream of water, was 
full of rough stones, and the ascent would hardly have been 
possible but for a rope supported by iron stanchions, which 
greatly aided our efforts upward. The young ladies proved 
admirable climbers, and, after two or three halts, we reached 
the summit in less than thirty minutes, and rested awhile there. 
It was a tough pull, worse than going up to the top of the 
Great Pyramid in Egypt, which I did, some years ago, in seven- 
teen minutes; but there I had five Arabs to help me — two to 
pull, one to push, one to carry water, and one to look on. We 
then passed on, over a rough field covered with small stones, to 
the extreme point, and looked out upon the Arctic Ocean. Our 
watches marked the hour of midnight; but it was foggy, and 
though light enough to read, there was no sun to be seen. 

The photographer of the excursion, Mr. Stoddart, of Glens 
Falls, N. Y., grouped the party about a round building on the 
extreme point of the cape, and took our photographs, intend- 
ing to print them and several hundred others in a large book, 
with descriptions of the entire trip. 




j i 



The return clown the steep path was almost as rough as the 
climb up; but we all accomplished it, happily without accident. 

Little seven-year-old Marion 



Dingee, escorted by Captain 
Boggs, went tripping from 
stone to stone like a fairy. 

We reached the ship at one 
o'clock A.M., much fatigued, 
but well pleased that we had 
clone the best we could to see 
the midnight sun from the top 
of Cape North. 

Next in our course came 



* 



":\ i HAMMERFEST, 

I with a population of 2,200, the 
, : most northern town in the 
W$ < wor W, and there we went 
ashore for two hours. The 
■IpW sun has an erratic way of rising 

and setting in this region; 
rjy jl ,! from May to July, there is 

r:ilK . "gg ' ■ f ' sunshine all the time, and from 

t ._ November to January, perpet- 

ual darkness; but in this town 
they get along very well now 
V having electric lights. 

sL -jRl'-"' Mi After leaving Hammerfest, 

Captain Boggs was good 
enough to invite me on the bridge while we were passing an 
immense rock on an island called Bird Rock, so named because 

15 



it is inhabited by countless thousands of gulls and ducks. As 
we passed it, steam was let on to a large whistle, which made 
a tremendous noise, frightening the creatures so that they flew 
around with loud cries. 
We then went on to 

BOSSEKOP, 

a small fishing village of no particular interest. The ship 
stopped there a few hours and then was off, passing through 
beautiful scenery to 

HARSTAD. 

We went ashore and took a long walk through the town, 
over smooth and excellent roads, as good as you find every- 
where in England, France, Germany, and Switzerland. An 
ancient church was seen; and spruce trees appeared on the 
mountain sides for the first time, for we had heretofore been in 
a treeless country. 

DIGERMULLEN, 

a small place, was passed by on our way to 



TRONDHJEM, 

an important place, founded eight hundred years ago, and for- 
merly the capital of Norway. Its cathedral is said to be the 
finest church in Scandinavia. We did not attend the service, 
although it was Sunday ; but we learned from some ladies that 
the Emperor William of Germany, whose yacht was in these 

1 6 




HAYMAKING, DIGEKMULLEN. 



■M. 




waters, was there, with a 
band of forty pieces of 
music, and that he him- 
self mounted the pulpit 
and preached a sermon. 

The emperor is a fre- '«./.•* 

quent visitor to this coun- ** 

try, and we were con- 
stantly hearing tales of ;;."*• 
his eccentric actions. 
Our next stop was at 

MOLDE, KaGiSS^:" 

a thriving town of 1,700 LUH- 

inhabitants, from which you get a fine view of a mountain ranoe 
covered with snow and ice, and also of the fjord. A fjord may 
be described as an inlet from the sea, running often many mile's 
among the mountains, and deep enough, generally, to float the 
largest ships. Mr. Dean and I went ashore and took a drive 

through the country in a 
two-wheeled vehicle, with 
a boy driver on a seat be- 
hind, as on a hansom cab. 
The roads in this country 
are excellent, but there- 
are no fences. Our driver 
must have been asleep, for 
the horse was not guided, 
and walked off into a field, 
upsetting the carriage and 
throwing us out, but doing 
no harm, except to alarm 
19 




ON THE KOAD TO KO.MSDAL. 




ROAD TO ulUlhl.M, 



our friends at a dis- 
tance, who saw the 
accident. 

Our next call 
was at 

NAES. 

We spent the day 
driving through the 
famous Romsdal 
Valley, and for the 
first time saw the 
really magnificent 
scenery of Norway in all its grandeur. We went on the road 
along the banks of a river, with great mountains on both sides, 
and in the valley were fine farms, with fields of oats, grass, 
potatoes, and barley in good condition, and largely attended to 
by stout and, in many cases, comely women. 

At Ormeim, fifteen miles distant, we had an excellent lunch, 
and, returning by the 
same route, reached the 
ship at five o'clock. 

It has been well said 
that " the gorge, or val- 
ley, presents a spectacle 
of grandeur not easily 
forgotten : the high, per- 
pendicular walls ; the 
bare and rugged moun- 
tains, with dark and 
deep crevices ; and the 
black-striped, abrupt on the road to ormeim. 





sides of the hills and rocks gave a peculiarly sombre aspect to 
the scene." " At Ormeim the river receives the waters of a 
stream, forming a magnificent cascade, which divides itself into 
three branches, each one tumbling down the sides of the hills in 
foaming billows." Some of the waterfalls which we saw plunged 
down 2,000 feet. These falls were numerous. I never saw so 
many near together, except in Japan. 

Leaving Naes, a run of 258 miles took the steamer to 

MUNDAL, 

where we arrived at II A.M., having passed through some of 
the most magnificent scenery in the world. Once, on looking 
back, it seemed to me as if a mighty gate had closed us in, and 
there was no way of getting out, surrounded, as we were, with 
snow-capped mountains five thousand feet or more high; but an 
opening soon appeared, and we passed on to see other views 
equally fine. We went ashore here and took a drive on the per- 
fect roads over the mountains, and looked upon scenery quite as 
grand as any in the Alps in Switzerland. 

The glaciers seen from here are a great attraction. They 
appear to be three or four miles off, and are much smaller than 
those in Switzerland, and not to be compared with those in 
Alaska — the Muir, for instance, being about two miles wide, 
two or three hundred feet high, and several hundred miles long; 
while from it great masses of ice, often as large as a church, con- 
stantly fall into the water. 

Our next call was at 

BALHOLMEN, 

where we arrived on the evening of the 29th, and went ashore 
the next morning. Magnificent Alpine scenery, great mountains 

23 



covered with snow and ice, were to be seen everywhere. The 
steamer sailed to the grand Fjord Aurland. The depth of the 
sea at the entrance is said to be 3,000 feet. 

Then we went on through still more magnificent scenery, if 
possible, to 

GUDVANGEN, 

a small hamlet situated among blocks of stone torn from the 
mountain side. We went ashore in the morning, and com- 
menced a never-to-be-forgotten trip over the mountains to Ber- 
gen, where we were to rejoin the steamer. Mr. Dean and I 
tried to secure a four-wheeled vehicle, but they were all 
engaged, and we were obliged to take the dangerous-looking 
two-wheeled affair with the driver seated behind. Our previous 
experience, however, caused us to reject a boy driver, and we 
got a careful-looking fellow who owned the team, and so would 
presumably be careful of that, if he were not of his passengers. 
The road was an excellent one, built with great engineering 
skill, Lip the mountains, and following for some distance the 
banks of a river. Everywhere we looked upon superb scenery, 
the like of which is not often seen. 

While passing for some miles along the banks of a lake, we 
saw a stone monument erected to mark the spot where Mr. and 
Mrs. Youmans, of New York, were drowned on the Fourth of 
July, 1896. Their horse was frightened or ugly, and backed off 
into the water. We stopped for a few minutes to read the 
inscription on the monument, and then the driver started the 
horse, which commenced backing toward the lake in a most 
alarming manner; but Mr. Dean took hold of the reins and kept 
him from doing so. We then drove on through more splendid 
scenery to 



24 







%'": 




1 I M 




STALHEIM. 

After lunch here, we continued the journey, soon going down 
a steep mountain road on the banks of a large river, at terrific 
speed, arriving at 5 P.M. at 



VOSSEVAVEN. 

The hotel is situated half-way up a high mountain, not read- 
ily accessible for carriages, and most of us walked up an exceed- 




'iv>- ';'.,;,? -*■„.- 




THE WEST HARIIUK AND FORTRESS, BERGEN. 



ingly steep, zigzag path a mile long; a very fatiguing climb — 
almost as much so as the one up on the North Cape. 

The view from the hotel, of the rushing and foaming river 

27 



below, the snow-clad mountains above and around, in fact the 
entire landscape, was one of exceeding beauty. The hotel at 
which we spent the night was an excellent one in every way. 
In the morning we took the steam cars for 

BERGEN, 

arriving there about noon, and going immediately on board the 
ship. Bergen is an important seaport city of 55,000 inhabit- 




ROAD, LAKE, 



ND DUARBRAE GL, 



ants, and is picturesquely situated, with a background of high 
hills. We took a long drive into the country, and visited an 
encampment of Laps, who made rather a sorry show with their 
poor little reindeer. The ship went along in the evening and 
stopped next at 

28 




We happened to ar- 
rive at Mirror Lake 
just in time to see 
the reflection of the 
mountains on its sur- 
face, and it was a 
sight of exceeding 
beauty. I think the 
view of Odde and 
the fjord below, as 
seen from the moun- 
tains, one of the 



ODDE. 

The following morn- 
ing we took a drive- 
along the banks of a 
river and a lake for 
sixteen miles through 
continued magnificent 
scenery — a combina- 
tion not often seen of 
river, lake, and snow- 
capped mountains. 




most beautiful in all the world. We saw many water-falls, one 
of which, the Skiaeggedalfoss, 1,600 feet high, is said to be the 
finest in Norway. After dining at a hotel, we went aboard the 
ship and left the next morning for 



ST A V ANGER, 

sailed up a fine fjord, and again saw more splendid scenery — a 

great glacier and 
" ^^llife*- 1 "' snow-covered moun- 

BfaWI tains. The fjord here 
is said to be one of 
the grandest in Nor- 
way, being enclosed 
by cliffs 3,300 feet 
high. 

Here we left the 
beautiful Norwegian 
scenery. Tourists 
who have plenty of 
leisure might spend 
a week to great ad- 
vantage in any of the places where we spent only a day or two. 
The hotels are excellent and cheap, and the people models of 
intelligence, honesty, sobriety, and good looks — particularly the 
young women. We saw no tramps, beggars, drunkards, or 
very poor people. 

A run of 356 miles brought us to 





KoSENUORG PALACE AND GARDEN, COPENHAGEN. 



COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, 

which has a population of 376,000. Mr. Dean and I stayed at 
the Hotel Metropole, and for two days went about the city, and 

32 



found it to be one of the finest in Europe. Parks, palaces, 
churches, and streets — all are splendid. We dined and spent an 
evening at the Tivoli Gardens, a very large and elegant place, 
where a free concert, which was very fine and largely attended, 
was given in one of the buildings. 

Another run, this time of 438 miles, brought us to 



STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 

where we went ashore, and finding all the rooms engaged at the 
Grand Hotel, one of the 
best, we secured excellent 



ones at the Hotel Swede, 

which was near, and took 

our meals at the Grand. 

We drove and walked about 

the city for three days, 

visiting picture galleries and 

public places, and we all 

pronounced it to be a 

splendid city, as fine as 

the best in any country. 

The population is about 

200,000, distributed between the mainland and nine islands 

connected by numerous bridges. 

A great exhibition was being held in a beautiful park. This 
we attended, and spent most of a day looking at the collection 
of goods and manufactures from all parts of Scandinavia. We 
also visited a gallery of fine paintings, and we would have liked 
to stay in the city at least a fortnight, in order to get a really 
good idea of its many beauties. 

The next stop was at 

35 




A NARROW STREET IN THE OLD QUARTER, STOCKHOLM. 



HELSINGFORS, 

the capital of Finland, a place not in my geography, and I was 
much surprised to find a large city, with fine streets, blocks of 




*--■■• 




RUSSIAN CHURCH, HELS1NGKUKS. 



buildings that would adorn any city, and a senate house; for 
though Finland is a part of Russia, it has a parliament. Here 
we saw for the first time the Russian vehicle called a drosky, a 
low, four-wheeled carriage, having seats for two only, besides 
the driver in front. Accompanied by my little friend Marion, I 
drove all about the city and then returned to the ship. 

A further sail of 162 miles brought us to the famous fortified 
town of 

CRONSTADT, IN RUSSIA. 



We arrived at seven in the morning, and spent the day on 
the ship, as we were not allowed to land. The custom-house 

36 




officers came on board, examined all 
our passports, endorsed them, and in 
the evening permitted the ship to go 
on. The city is a large one, reported 
as having 100,000 inhabitants, and, as 
seen from the ship, it appeared to be 
a fine city, with loft}- build- 
ings, an immense church, 
and parks, and it was sur- -jF 

rounded by great fortifica- 
tions. The Emperor Will- 
iam's yacht passed us here, 
and later we saw that of 
Mr. George Gould. We 
went along through a canal, 

nine miles long and very wide, toward St. Petersburg. The 
canal was crowded with all kinds of craft — steamers, yachts, 
sailing vessels, and boats loaded with grain and lumber. Our 
big ship was in charge of a Russian pilot, and he skillfully 
avoided collision between her and any other craft until near the 
end of the route, when she ran into and sunk a large wooden 
canal boat laden with grain, and made great holes in two others. 
After this she continued her course, and soon cast anchor at 



STATUE OF PETER THE GREAT, ST. PETEKSIU'Rii. 



ST. PETERSBURG, 



near the famous St. Nicholas Bridge. The next day we drove 
about the city in a clrosky. It contains more than a million of 
people, and is immense, being six miles long and five miles wide. 
The streets are long and very wide, lined with great numbers of 
splendid churches, public buildings, stores, and houses; and. 
altogether, it is one of the most picturesque and splendid cities 

39 




MONUMENT OF NICHOLAS II., ST. PETERSBURG. 



in Europe. I noticed, as we drove 
along at a rapid pace over the 
cobble-stone pavements, that the 
drosky man was constantly cross- 
ing himself whenever 
we passed a church 

HiSt or wria t i s called an 
icon " — the picture 
t!:JL::: '. ' of a saint in a frame. 
These images are fas- 
tened up at frequent 
intervals along the 
streets. 
We were housed at the Grand Hotel, an excellent one, and 
there, immediately on our arrival, our passports were examined 
again, and endorsed. We went through the Hermitage, one of 
the finest picture galleries in the world, and many other public 
buildings, filled with costly and elegant things, which it would 
take a whole guide-book to describe. 

I attended service several times at St. Isaac's Cathedral, 
whose big gilded dome you see from great distances, and in 
front of which stands the famous statue of Peter the Great. 
The vast church was filled with at least ten thousand people, 
standing up, for there are never seats in a Greek church. The 
people appeared to be mostly of the poorer classes, roughly 
clothed, but they were very attentive to the service. Every few 
minutes those around me would kneel down, strike their heads 
on the marble floor, and then get up and make the sign of the 
cross. The services appeared to be wholly musical, and such 
music I never heard. An old, long-bearded bass singer came 
forward and sung, filling the vast edifice with wonderful melody ; 
and he was followed with half a dozen others, who sung together 
very sweetly. 

40 




W fiTJI 





The decorations of this church were marvels of costly extrav- 
agance. The paintings of many saints were framed in solid 
silver adorned with precious stones. I examined with great 
interest a beautiful model of the church, about three feet long, 
two wide, and two high, made of solid gold. Peter the Great 
is much in evidence everywhere; his palaces, the house he built 
and lived in, the chair he sat in, the desk he used, and a portrait 
of him, the frame studded with diamonds, are shown. 

We left by rail at eight in the evening for 



MOSCOW, 



403 miles distant. This road was built by Philadelphia contract- 
ors, and engineered by Major George W. Whistler, of Boston, 
whom I remember seeing once when I was a lad. It is well 
built, and as good a road as I ever was on. The cars are first 
class, run by an international company, whose headquarters are 
in Paris. The)'' are of the Mann boudoir pattern. Before get- 
ting to bed, and also in the morning, we had a chance to see the 
country through which we were passing. 
We did not see any large towns or many 
farms. The country was perfectly flat. 
We arrived at Moscow at 11 A.M., and 
stopped at the Hotel Berlin, an excellent 
one in ever}- respect. After lunch we 
took a drosky and 
were rushed over the 
rough cobble pave- 
ments at a fearful 
speed to the famous 
Kremlin, situated on 
the hills, and enclosed the holy 

43 






.ATE OF THE KREMLIN, MOSCUW. 



by a wall sixty feet high and two miles long. Here we had a 
splendid view of the city, with its " marvellous conglomeration 
of domes and spires — like melons, pumpkins, pears, and straw- 
berries, ornamented with spirals, circles, and zigzags; hung 
with chains, disks, crescents, and stars ; gilded with gold, covered 
with copper, or painted bright red or green." Murray's hand- 
book devotes forty-eight pages to a description of the churches 
and buildings and their contents within the Kremlin, and from 

reading them one 
can get an idea of 
the splendor of the 
edifices and their 
immensely valuable 
contents. We 
went into a beauti- 
ful and costly little 
a church where the 
emperor was lately 
crowned ; we were 
also escorted to the 
rooms which Na- 
poleon occupied, in 
which we saw the 
bed he slept on and the chairs he used. We could not fail to 
recall that, in September, 1812, he looked out of the same 
windows which we were now gazing from, and saw the great 
fires burning which destroyed the beautiful city. He sent a 
message suggesting peace to Kutusow, the commander-in-chief 
of the Russian army, who replied: " There will be no peace as 
long as there is one foreign soldier on Russian soil. The cam- 
paign has just commenced." 

We all remember the frightful retreat of the French army 
from Moscow. One hundred and ten thousand soldiers marched 

44 




THE GREAT BELL, MOSCOW. 




..% 





THE ENGLISH CHURCH, COPENHAGE> 




porary shed, which was 
burned, and the water 
thrown on to put out the 
fire caused the fracture. 

Moscow is a very busy 
place, being a railroad 
centre and great manu- 
facturing seat. It is 
several hundred miles fur- 
ther east than Constanti- 



into Russia, and only 
10,000 ever reached the 
soil of France. 

I was much inter- 
ested in the great bell, 
the largest in the world, 
cast in 1733, and weigh- 
ing 288,000 pounds. 
There is a fracture in 
it, caused, as I had al- 
ways read, by a fall, 
but this is a fable. It 
was housed in a tem- 




47 



nople, and has trade with both Oriental and Western countries. 
Several times, when looking a t the minarets and fancy build- 
ings, I thought I must be in India or Turkey. I found diamonds 
and furs much cheaper than with us, but all other things very 
high priced. 

We made the return trip to St. Petersburg by night, arriv- 
ing there at II A.M., and this time we stayed at the Hotel del' 
Europe, one of the largest and finest in Europe, complete with 
modern appliances, including steam heat, electric lights, and 
water in the bedrooms, and a table all that could be desired. 

The next day we went on a steamboat about eight miles to 



PETERHOF, 

and saw what appear to me to be altogether the most magnifi- 
cent pleasure grounds and fountains in the world. The foun- 
tains do not usually play except on holidays or by command, 
but we were fortunate enough to be there when the President of 
France was expected, and saw them all in full operation. Some 
years ago my friend Mrs. Daniel Butterfield was presented to 
the court, and the empress ordered the fountains played espe- 
cially for her. 

There were a dozen or more large statues of glittering gold, 
scattered along the walks and among the trees, with great quan- 
tities of water flowing over and around them, producing beauti- 
ful effects. There were two designs which I had never seen 
before, except at Chatsworth, England, the seat of the Duke of 
Devonshire, one being a series of a hundred or more marble 
steps, down which tumbled a great mass of water; and the other 
what appeared to be a large natural willow tree, but it turned 
out to be made of copper, and when the man in charge turned 
on a cock, water fell from each leaf. We spent several hours in 

48 



•' I ."#*•■ 






walking and driving through the beautiful woods and well cared 
for parks; went through another glittering and splendid palace; 
saw another house where Peter the Great once lived ; and then 
took the train for St. Petersburg, arriving there in half an hour. 

I think we were fortunate in being at Peterhof at the time 
of the immense preparations for the reception of the President 
of France ; and we know that two days after we left he met 
the emperor, they embraced with enthusiasm, and thus cemented 
friendship between two of the most powerful nations on earth, 
• — France with her glorious history of hundreds of years, on the 
pages of which stand out the names of her great men, sur- 
rounded, as it were, with circles of diamonds, flashing in the 
midday sun so that all men may see them for ages to come : who 
cannot recall the names of Voltaire, Napoleon, Murat, Ney, 
and hundreds of others, and later on those of Guizot, Thiers, 
Gambetta, and the scientists and scholars who have, since its 
foundation, made the French Academy famous throughout the 
world ; and Russia, with her enormous possessions extending 
from sea to sea, her immense population and wealth, appearing 
now to be entering upon a career which will ultimately place her 
among the foremost nations of the earth in civilization, as she 
already is in power. She has nearly completed a railroad from 
Vladivostock to St. Petersburg, 6,000 miles long, the longest 
continuous railway in the world, and another running to the 
Chinese Sea ; and everybody knows that railways are the great- 
est missionaries of modern times. They run around, under, and 
over great ranges of mountains; span valleys and streams, and 
penetrate vast forests; to be followed by towns and cities, bring- 
ing with them civilization, education, and religious influences. 
Our visit to Russia may prove to have been at an epoch-making 
period in the history of civilization and the world. 

The next day we went on board the ship and again passed 
through the canal to 

51 



CRONSTADT, 

where the custom-house officers examined our passports, endorsed 
them, and then permitted us to leave the country, and we went 
on into the Gulf of Finland. The passengers were so well 
pleased with the cruise on the " Ohio," that one evening they 
presented to Captain Boggs, through Dr. J. N. Bishop, of New 
York, who made a graceful address, a paper signed by all, thank- 
ing him for his politeness, and congratulating him and his offi- 
cers on the entire success of the trip. I heartily endorse what 
Dr. Bishop said, and the contents of the paper presented to 
Captain Boggs; and that thanks are also especially due the 
chief officer, Mr. E. V. Roberts, for, though constantly engaged 
night and day attending to his duties in navigating the ship, he 
always found time to be polite in his attentions to the passen- 
gers. I also wish to say that the fourth officer, Mr. F. O. Hor- 
ton, who generally had command of the steam launch which 
carried the passengers to and from the shore hundreds of times, is 
to be commended for his constant watchfulness and care, so that 
not the slightest accident ever occurred, and the passengers were 
always treated by him with courtesy and politeness. 
The ship passed on 782 miles to 

KIEL, 

where my friends Mr. Dean, Mr. and Mrs. Flack, and several 
others got off, wishing to go through Germany to Paris. The 
steamer went through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. This canal is 
61^3 miles long, 31 feet deep, and 200 feet wide, with only two 
locks, one at each end, and I saw only two bridges. It passes 
through a level and cultivated country, with man)- houses and 
villages on or near its banks. The United States steamer 

52 



" Charleston " went through the canal when it was dedicated, 
but no ship from America as large as the " Ohio " had been 
seen since, and the banks were often lined with men, women, 
and children, who smiled and cheered as we passed. 

We were nine hours going through the canal, and then we 
found ourselves on the ocean once more. We reached South- 
ampton on the morning of the twenty-fifth of August, after an 
absence from New York of sixty days, during which time we had 
had nearly perfect weather. Captain Boggs and everyone else 
on the ship knew that this was because we had on board a mascot 
— the little seven-year-old Marion Dingee, who was constantly 
running up and down stairs and all over the ship, carrying with 
her light, sunshine, and beaut}-. 

When the passengers stood on the deck of our ship in foreign 
seas, we were like a man in a great forest, who, when he saw a 
blaze on the trees, knew that by following the path indicated, it 
would lead him to a haven of safety; so we, when we looked 
aloft and saw the Star Spangled Banner floating at mast, knew 
that all who stood beneath its folds were entitled to life, liberty, 
protection, and the pursuit of happiness. 

As the stately vessel passed through many waters and into 
many countries, we saw that flag saluted in recognition of the 
fact that it represented one of the great powers of earth, the 
United States of America. Let us, therefore, continue to cher- 
ish that flag, and in our distant homes see that it floats on fes- 
tival days, on the hills and in the valleys, on schoolhouse and 
other public buildings, and, in the language of General Dix, 
If any man hauls it down, shoot him on the spot." 

At Southampton I left the ship, took the night boat for 
Havre, and arrived in Paris early the next morning. After four 
days in Paris, I recrossed the channel by way of New Haven, 
went to London, stayed there four days more, and then came 
home in the fast steamer " St. Paul." 

Thus ended another summer vacation. 

55 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 677 




